A near-eye display (NED) device, such as a head mounted display (HMD) device, may be worn by a user for experiences such as an augmented reality (AR) experience and a virtual reality (VR) experience. A projection light engine generates image data for display in a field of view of the NED device. The efficiency with which light from the projection light engine is coupled to a near-eye display affects image quality and power consumption as the engine has to provide more illumination to make up for lost light. Coupling light at an exit pupil is very efficient as the exit pupil is an area where a beam of light representing an image has the smallest cross section and contains the full image for display. However, many projection light engines have an internal exit pupil meaning the exit pupil is internal to the optics of the projection light engine. Coupling light from a projection light engine with an internal exit pupil is much less efficient due to additional optics to recapture the image data after it has left the exit pupil and optical power of the image light is weakened as it has to pass through more optics. A display which is able to directly access the image data at the exit pupil is much more power efficient in providing a quality image.